Saturday Papers – 8th August 2015

Eurotunnel

An embarrassing security lapse at the heart of the Calais crisis has been exposed after dozens of migrants unlocked a supposedly secure door into the Eurotunnel complex. Despite millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money being spent on reinforced fencing, photographs taken by The Telegraph reveal how a group of 30 migrants breached security and simply walked inside the secure zone.

The men walked up to a gate about a mile from the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal near Calais and, within seconds, were inside. They are believed to have guessed the security code by examining which numbers were dirtiest or most worn on the keypad.

A close examination of the keypad showed the numbers two, four and zero were clearly more worn than the other digits. Bruno Noel, of the Alliance police union in the Calais area, said the break-in was “strange and very troubling”.

Polish Migrant Workers

Thousands of Polish people working in Britain are expected to take part in the first ever migrant workers strike in this country later this month. The protest, planned for Thursday 20th August, is the result of discussions on Polish internet forums by people angry at immigrants being blamed for Britain’s economic problems.

And the unofficial strike, which does not involve any trade unions, is being backed by the Polish Express newspaper which has created a Facebook group to promote the event. A red t-shirt produced for the protest states: “Enough! Stop blaming us.”

The suggestion of a strike came from one of their readers, claimed Tomasz Kowalski, editor, Polish Express. “It’s just a way to show people in the UK that immigrants are an important part of Britain. We want to make the point that we are here and that we want to feel appreciated,” he said.

Jeremy Corbyn has told his Labour critics that his mandate to lead the party will stretch beyond Westminster if he wins the contest to succeed Ed Miliband. Amid rising concern among established Labour figures at the apparently unstoppable momentum behind the veteran leftwinger, Corbyn said his campaign has captured a public mood against austerity also seen in Spain, Greece and the US.

Corbyn is facing suggestions that he would not have a mandate to lead the party after only making it on to the ballot paper at the last minute because other Labour MPs “lent” him their votes to promote a debate about the party’s future.

But in an interview with the Guardian, Corbyn made it clear he was rising above personal attacks: “The mood is there and we happen to be in the middle of it. We are not doing celebrity, personality, abusive politics – we are doing ideas. This is about hope.”

If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour party leadership he may want to take a tip from Margaret Thatcher and hire a speech coach to lower his voice should he stand in the next general election. Scientists have found that it is not just what politicians say but how they say it that wins over a sceptical electorate, with deeper voices being seen as having more leadership quality than higher-pitched speakers.

Gordon Brown, who had a famously deep voice, would have sounded like a true leader even though he failed to win in the 2010 general election, while Ed Milliband’s nasal tones did not add to his political anti-charisma.

Mrs Thatcher realised early on in her political career that her sometimes shrill and strident voice did not go down well with the electorate so hired a voice coach from the National Theatre who trained her to lower her vocal tones.

House of Lords

David Cameron has appointed peers to the House of Lords at a faster annual rate than any other prime minister, research has revealed. As he prepares to announce dozens of new peers in the next few weeks, it has emerged that Mr Cameron has been more likely than any other prime minister since 1958 to send people from ruling parties to the Lords.

Researchers at University College London found his appointments average at 40 per year since 2010. The previous record had been set by Labour’s Harold Wilson with 38 a year, followed by Tony Blair – frequently criticised by Tories at the time for packing the Lords – on 37. The record for the lowest annual peerage creation rate is shared by Gordon Brown and Edward Heath on 12 a year.

Edward Heath

A former brothel keeper at the centre of a child abuse controversy surrounding Sir Edward Heath is to be questioned by authorities on the matter for the first time, the Guardian has learned. Myra Forde, 67, was acquitted of running a brothel when the prosecution dropped its case on the first day of trial at Winchester crown court in 1992.

A retired Wiltshire police officer believes the prosecution was aborted because threats were made to expose Heath, the late former prime minister, as a paedophile. Forde has denied making such threats, but the Guardian understands information handed to Wiltshire police centres on claims that witnesses in her trial were persuaded to withdraw their testimony in order to stop allegations against Heath being heard in public.

The disgraced music impresario has bizarrely argued that the late Conservative leader – who is the subject of child sex abuse inquiries by seven police forces – was “quite clearly non-sexual” because he “tried and failed to seduce him”.

King rose to fame as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s and went on to discover rock legends Genesis and 10cc. The star, now 70, was jailed in 2001 for a series of sex attacks on boys aged 14 and 15. He has said he spent twenty minutes flirting with the then-ex PM on a flight from Scotland to London in the late 1970s.

Mediterranean Migrants

The United Nation’s refugee agency, UNCHR, said Europe is also to blame for failing to prevent the suffering on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Kos, Samos and Leros which “should and could be avoided”. As revealed by Express.co.uk yesterday and last month, there is a serious lack of water, food, shelter, medical assistance and information for desperate migrants arriving on the islands, with children living in fear of being raped if they go to the bathroom in the night.

In a strongly worded report the agency said the amount of migrants who had arrived in Greece this year by the end of July had increased by a “staggering” 750 PER CENT compared to the same period in 2014 – and branded it an “urgent humanitarian emergency”.

In July alone 50,000 new migrants had arrived on the islands, 20,000 more than the previous month. The UNCHR said the “vast majority” coming to Greece are from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq – all countries experiencing conflict or human rights violations.

Kids Company

Senior staff at Kids Company turned a blind eye to the suspected theft of thousands of pounds taxpayers’ money by one of the charity’s “favoured” clients – an alleged drug user who drove a BMW, a whistleblower has claimed.

A psychotherapist who worked there at the time, said the incident in which about £10,000 allegedly went missing was indicative of “chaos” at the charity which collapsed this week amid a spiralling cash crisis days after receiving a £3 million Government lifeline.

He said it came against the backdrop of a situation in which a group of troubled young people close to the charity’s founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, and nicknamed “the chosen ones”, were allowed wide access to the group’s London head office.

David Cameron has defended the government’s decision to give Kids Company £3m, as hundreds of supporters of the beleaguered charity staged an emotionally charged march on Downing Street. The prime minister said he was disappointed the charity had to close its doors on Wednesday, but he defended ministers’ decision to grant the cash injection despite the reservations of civil servants. He insisted it was right to give the charity “one last chance”.

Meanwhile, Kids Company staff hugged their clients in poignant scenes at the Whitehall demonstration on Friday as they said farewell, possibly for the last time.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, the charity’s embattled founder, made a brief appearance at the rally. She has defended the organisation against allegations that staff were involved in drug-taking with young people in its care. She has also insisted that allegations of sexual abuse were handled properly and denied claims of financial mismanagement.

Some of Britain’s top retailers are facing calls to be more honest with airport customers as they pocket millions of pounds in VAT discounts on duty free items without passing on the savings.

Many stores in airports across the UK now demand that passengers present their boarding cards at checkouts before paying for any goods. But that is not a legal requirement, and instead the information is being used by stores to avoid paying 20 per cent VAT on everything they sell to customers who are travelling outside the European Union.

Research by The Independent suggests the majority of these stores are passing little if any of the savings to customers, and instead are using the tax rebate to boost the profits of their airport franchises.

Telephone Sales

Spam marketing firms will be forced to display their phone number when calling victims under new plans to end the blight of cold-calling. New rules will require companies phoning members of the public to advertise the number they are calling from and stop them hiding behind an unknown number.

The new rules could also apply to those charity fundraisers exposed by the Mail for targeting vulnerable people. The new Caller ID rules are being drawn up by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and will be published next month. One Whitehall source said it was ‘outrageous’ that firms could hide behind an unknown number. The change in the rules could allow victims to identify when they are being cold-called by firms pestering them with messages about payment protection insurance, accident claims or boiler insurance.

UKIP Council Candidate

The Daily Mirror newspaper has issued an apology to a former UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate after running a front page story claiming that he was making a “Nazi salute” on camera. Alex Wood, now 24, had his early twenties ruined by the Mirror splash which alleged that he was a neo-Nazi. The report came just before Britain’s local elections in 2013, when Nigel Farage’s party gained 132 seats across the country.

But now, over two years after printing the story, and over two years after the police cleared Mr Wood of the allegations against him, the Mirror has issued an apology:

“In print and online articles in April and May 2013 we said that Alex Wood, who was standing for UKIP in the May 2013 local elections in Somerset, had been photographed making a ‘Nazi salute’. We also said that he had made racist comments on Facebook.

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4 Comments

pamela preedy
on August 8, 2015 at 3:21 pm

Is Corbyn’s tone of voice his only real barrier to leadership? I would have thought his political record was the actual problem: the fact that he’s a silly old Marxist and did questionable things such as invite Sinn Fean over for a meeting immediately after the 1984 Brighton bombing of the Conservative conference-goers.

pamela preedy
on August 8, 2015 at 3:15 pm

I would never buy that self-righteous Labour rag the Daily Mirror, so I can’t check for myself, but I wonder if it put the long-overdue apology to Alex Wood in as prominent a position and in as large a typeface as they displayed the false accusation?
Silly question, really.

pamela preedy
on August 8, 2015 at 3:11 pm

The hyper-massive ego of child-molester Jonathan King manifests itself yet again. Edward Heath couldn’t be gay because although King spent 20 minutes flirting with him, there was no response, he couldn’t seduce him! Clearly, King hasn’t imagined the unimaginable: that Heath didn’t fancy the smirking idiot. Or perhaps, like King, Heath preferred small boys. I wouldn’t put anything past the traitorous criminal who gave this country away to foreign rule. May he rot in peace.

David
on August 8, 2015 at 8:40 pm

Hear hear !

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